Allegory of the Cave

Socrates describes a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Socrates, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall do not make up reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.

Material List

Often times I see the work of other artists and I wonder what materials they used. I'm posting this to share what works for me:


Oils Painting
paints:
rembrandt, utrecht, windsor newton, dan smith, hans holbein

colors:
titanium white
cad yellow light
cad yellow dark
cad red
alizarin crimson
ultramarine blue
burnt sienna
+ gray made from opposite colors
b.sienna + u.blue
cad orange + u.blue


These are colors that I put on my palette occasionally:
cad orange
naples yellow
burnt umber
cobalt blue

Brushes
Monarchs - flats, rounds,
Bristles - princeton, blick,

Mediums
Sometimes use terp at the start, but not much afterwards

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Watercolors

Paints:Daniel Smith, Windsor Newton, M. Graham, Holbein,

Brushes
Raphaël Kolinsky Red Sable Extra Pointed Round: 8
Winsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable Pointed Round: 2
Escoda Optimo Kolinsky Sable Watercolor Brushes: 8, 6

Paper
Arches for highend - I've been using cold press, but I may start trying out hot pressed
Canson for sketches

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Monotypes
ink: CHARBONNL ETCHNG INK
paper: RIVES PAPER/BFK 22X30 WHT 280G
press: 9 x 12" Press by Polymetaal

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Sketching
Bee Paper Aquabee Super Deluxe Sketchbook
Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens

Relocating

Currently, I'm in the midst of changes and will not be updating this site for a bit. If you're interested in seeing art instead of reading about it, you can click here.
Maddrey.net

Grand Re-Opening of the Historic Mono Inn

If you're traveling along the legendary 395 highway be sure to stop at the Historic Mono Inn. I'm currently assembling a exhibition there. The date will be announced as soon as I pick one.

Historic Mono Inn

Update on Maddrey.Net

It seems that the changing of the seasons equates with another updating of Maddrey.net. and another series of paintings to appreciate. Apparently it's the year of change for many people I speak with and for me it's no different.  The exciting change out here is that this will be the first summer in a long time where I won't be living in Yosemite National Park. Instead, I'll be staying here in Tahoe to paint at Sand Harbor  and in my studio. For those of you who were looking forward to seeing my work in the Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, please stay in touch as I will be visiting the area very often and I will be continuing to work on my water series in Tuolumne. Impromptu exhibitions will still be available for the families that have come to expect it as a part of their Tuolumne experience. I'll just need a little advance notice.  Also stay in touch to find out the dates of my exhibition at the newly reopened Mono Inn which will be held this summer. For those of you visiting Tuolumne, the Mono Inn should be a definite stop not only to see the paintings but also to appreciate a little bit history and the hard work that, legendary pianist Jim O'Meally has put into this endeavor.  This past winter has been a great success in terms of painting. I've focused my energies on still life and particularly the reflective quality of silver. The highlight of the series is inspired by the dutch masters and is slightly unusual for my painting style. Other highlights of the current update include a superb example of plein air painting done at Sand Harbor as well as an interesting still life based off stuffed animals. For those of you who have supported me and my work throughout the years in Yosemite, I thank you tremendously. You all have added to my time spent living there and I hope I was able to add to your time spent there as well. I will miss the outdoor exhibitions showcasing art on the bear boxes and dead trees. It seems less pretentious that way. For those of you who need to take a little bit of Yosemite home with them, my book is still available from my website. As much fun as it was living there, my mind is already consumed with other projects for the summer. Currently I'm writing and illustrating my first childrens book that will be finished before the summer. The second one will be finished at the end of the summer. Also in the works for the next update is a rather large canvas that measures in at 5' x 4'. The subject is of course water and this piece has been occupying my mind and energy for weeks now.  Please take a moment out of your day to enjoy the gallery and let me know what you think. I'd love to hear from you. http://www.maddrey.net/paintingsof_still.html

Teaching Art

One time I decided to take a life drawing class at the local art league. The class was filled with about ten or twelve people with most of them being interesting. The teacher was a woman who painted ultra realistically. Her paintings were nice, but her teaching style was atrocious. I had asked her a question about something or other and her response to me was, I can't help you, I don't paint the way you do. I thought that was the lamest stupidest answer I've ever heard and I almost left the class right then and there, but I paid for use of the models so I was going to use them regardless of how useless the teacher is.

It just annoyed me that a teacher would say something that ignorant. It made me remember that not all teachers are good. In fact, most are not really that good and it's so annoying. A good teacher can elevate a student to their potential, this lady was just killing time on a Tuesday night.

Watching Programs

On Netflix, you can watch certain TV programs that you might see on Discovery Channel or PBS. I've tried to watch a view, but they remind me of why I don't like watching television.

This one program I tried to watch was about the Middle Ages. It sounded like it could have shown some interesting information. Unfortunately it was produced in that same old boring way all TV shows are produced. With an emphasis on theatrics and violence, the show plodded along without giving the viewer any useful information.

I should have known better, because the intro to the show was done with lightning fast edits between clips of dungeon torture scenes, muddy war battles and some so called 'expert' droning on about how horrible the times were. All these types of shows are the same. There's a system that works for shows about Vietnam, Ancient Egypt, or the Middle Ages. Show some dumb reenactment, show some 'expert', back to the dumb reenactment with a voice over, pan over some photos, roll credits.

That Ken Burns guy does an alright job with documentaries like Jazz and the Civil War, but overall this format for presentating information is pretty boring. So needless to say I wasted about ten minutes of my life watching this horrible show before I realized it wasn't going to get any better.

Letter from Nabisco.....

My Inquiry.....
I was wondering when you're going to stop putting in High Fructose Corn Syrup and Partially Hydrogenated Oil into your Premium Crackers.?

Their Response....
Thank you for visiting http://www.nabiscoworld.com and for your inquiry on our PREMIUM Cracker.
There are many types of fats and oils used in food products. Hydrogenated oils give foods the texture people expect and help foods stay fresh longer than alternative ingredients. Developing alternative ingredients with the same taste, texture and freshness characteristics but with better nutrition has been a challenge throughout the food industry. We do follow government rules for all ingredients used in our products; however, I will pass your concerns on to our Product Development.
Unfortunately, information on when these ingredients were introduced to the product is unavailable.
If you haven’t done so already, please add our site to your favorites and visit us again soon!
K. McMiller
Associate Director, Consumer Relation

---------------

Thanks for nothing Nabisco, and No. I won't be adding your site to my favorites.

Walking Home

I remember one afternoon walking home from high school. I think I had after school detention and then skipped football practice so I was left to my own devices. On my way home, my seventh grade reading teacher was driving by. (Mrs. R. for those in the know. She was also the lady who asked one of the students to leave the class room so she could tell the rest of the students to stop picking on this particular kid).

She recognizes me and asks if I need a ride home. I say no thanks, but she prods a little and I agree. I start directing her where I live, right on Ivory, right on Triadelphia, etc. The whole time she keeps asking me, are we close? are we there yet? I tell her that she can drop me off wherever she wants to. I'm fine walking.

But we finally arrive at my driveway and she drops me off and zooms away to wherever it was she had to go. It made me realize two things. One, if you're going to offer your help to someone, offer it kindly and don't complain about it. And two, most people don't walk anywhere for any length of time.

John McEwan Quote

The great thing about art is that no one can define it, even if we all know vaguely what it means.

roots

The other day I watched that movie called, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Looking back on it, I realize that was probably my first introduction to the Indian culture. That movie laid a seed, that turned into a thought that turned into action. All because of Doctor Jones and what's his face.... um shortbus, or shortcake, short round! That's it, Shortround.

Regardless, it's interesting to think of what seeds we are laying for ourselves now. All that we do and see are possible stepping stones for some greater venture.

Cool Painting of the Day

John Frederick Peto took an old drawer full of books and turned it into a beautiful painting. Well done, old chap.

Learning to Ski

This weekend I went on a ski trip down to the Eastern Sierra. In my car I had some cross country (xc) skis and a backcountry setup. It's a couple hour drive down from Tahoe and a major storm was approaching along the crest, so when I made it to Bridgeport, I finally bought some chains which was an extremely good purchase since the storm locked me down in the Mono Basin for a day.

My first stop was on Tioga Pass. My goal this winter is to head up to Tuolumne Meadows, so I wanted to see what it was actually like skiing up Tioga Pass road. It's a roughly twelve mile, 2500' ascent to the pass and then eight miles and a 1500' descent to the ski hut. As I begin to ski up this road I'm initially taken aback by just how freakin long and hard this route might be. Just one long slow slog up 120. The snow was coming down signficantly more then when I started, so I figured I should head back to the car and possibly head down to Bishop, but the mountain weather was against me and I was forced to bivy in the van south of Mono Lake.

My evening was great, I just watched a movie and crashed out hard. Although, I was a little nervous about the snow. It just kept coming and coming. I was worried I was going to be stuck in the morning when I woke up, so I kept the chains on all night. Sure enough, when I awoke there was fresh snow everywhere. It was beautiful, crisp, and clear out. With a little rocking back and forth I was able to get my car moving, but then I had to get enough speed to blow through the plowed snow hill that the snow removers built up. So I backed up and blasted through. That was fun. After a quick morning xc ski run around the flat, I was off to Bishop.

Once down in Bishop, I met up with some friends and we headed up to Habeggars on South Lake Road. This was my first time backcountry skiing. Everything was new to me, my skis, my boots, the bindings, the skins, the snow, etc. I was a total rookie in this backcountry ski world. Add to the fact that I've actually only gone skiing eight or nine times in my entire life and only two of those were as an adult, and you get someone whose mind is fertile ground for learning.

When we get to the top of the hill and I ask, 'So how do you ski down?' I think the others might have been a little taken aback. Now isn't the time for those types of questions. But up till then I had too much to think about. I busy thinking about which line to create going up hill, I had to think about how tired I was and I had to worry about the snow that kept on coming down. Skiing in powder was new to me, so I just wanted a one or two sentence answer on the philosophy.

Once at the top of the hill, I moved into 'transition' mode. The crap you have to do between going uphill and downhill is called the 'transition.' Let me tell you, my transition time was atrocious. First off, it's snowing quite significantly, visibility was low, we're perched on the side of this steep incline, all my gear is new and it's cold out. So I'm fumbling and fussing, while those guys are just waiting patiently. Well, maybe not patiently, but silently at least. My skis are flopping around, my bindings won't engage, there's snow everywhere, everything was against me. But once I finally get myself together, I have one more question to ask Jim, but as I turn to get his answer he's already blasted down the hill.

Not wanting to be left alone, I jump right in after him. My initial feeling is speed. I love speed, don't get me wrong. In fact, I drive a slow car, because I love speed too much. I forfeited the right to own a sports car years ago. So going fast isn't my issue, it's going fast without a clue that bothers me. I didn't have too much time to gain speed though since I kept on falling over, but falling over in powder just makes one laugh. It's actually a good feeling. We all made it down eventually before the storm really kicked in gear and my first day of Backcounty skiing was a success.

Day Two was a completely different story though. Crystal clear skies, warm temps, skinning up in tshirts... it's that perfect Sierra day that is just typical of this area. The hike up was less exhausting, the snow was fluffier, and my transition time was pretty much cut in half. No questions at the top, just excitement. This time I make it down flawlessly without a crash. At the bottom, I was able to see the beautiful line I just made on the slope. A beautiful slithering S curve this time, as compared to yesterdays line which looked like someone with a seizure was trying to draw a picture.

Needless to say, the weekend was incredible. Day two was followed up by more XC skiing at Mono Lake and then up to Virginia Lakes Road for some final runs at setting light with an amazing view of Mono Lake in the background. It doesn't get much better then that.

Snow Removal

Typical morning in Lake Tahoe.

Morning Walk

Here's a video from a morning walk. In the morning the air is clear and everything is quiet and there is no one around. Just the quiet sounds of the waves rolling up to the snow.

Graton Gallery

I'm currently showing paintings at the Graton Gallery located just outside of Sebastopol, California. The exhibition is showcasing several well known artists from the Northern California area. The work is outstanding and I'm happy to be surrounded by quality.

Come check it out.

http://gratongallery.com/

Here's a sad story

Towards the end of Michelangelo;s life he was found one day to be tossing old sketches into the fire. He knew that he was going to be remembered into posterity and he didn't want work that he thought wasn't quite up to par.

What's annoying is that his below average pieces are still mind blowing and we all could have learned so much from those works. Sometimes when a painting is ''too good' it's hard to comprehend how the artist did it. If you take a painting that isn't mind blowing is easier to understand how it's done. And replicate the idea if need be.

Amazing Woodblock Artist

Nice woodcuts. Worthy of checking out.


Tom Killion...




http://tomkillion.com/app/index

Purpose

This is not the first blog I've set up. While travelling through India, I set up a blog to tell about the stories that happened. The main motivation was to fill in my friends and family. I knew they would appreciate it, but I've never been one to talk about my adventures all that much. I've already lived through the story of my life, I don't feel the need to tell everyone else how cool my life is. Besides, there are enough people out there with an incorrect assumption about their own personal importance.

Telling stories reminds me of being in high school. I remember several times where something funny would happen to me, and I just couldn't wait to tell someone at work about my crazy day. Then when I get into work I tell the story once and I'm done telling it. Even if I didn't like the person I told it to and I really meant to tell someone else, I would hardly ever retell the tale.

Another time I was telling some people about this ridiculous accident I had on Tioga Pass Road. There was this boulder that almost crushed my car and could have sent me over the cliff. So I was telling the story and getting into all the details and the excitement. Afterwards another guy came up and wanted to know what happened. I said, 'A rock almost hit my car.' He said, 'I don't believe you.' I said, 'ok. That's nice.'

I think my aversion to repeated story telling has to do with hanging around drunks. A repeating drunk who drones on and on about something he just talked about five minutes ago really irks me. Just like when someone is retelling me something, I get annoyed. 'Why are you telling me this again? Obviously what you're telling me isn't important enough for you to remember you told it to me in the first place. So why should I remember it or have to listen to it twice?'

Regardless this blog scene is interesting. It's a possible source of new clients and new patronage, which is always good. And technically the story is only told once, but it's out there forever. It's permanent. My opinions and ideas change all the time and to have people quoting my blog saying 'well back in '08 you said you liked Gummi Bears, but now you say you don't eat 'em. What's up?'

I'll tell you what's up.... if you're going to spend time on the internet, you might as well read this, but if truth be known, I'd rather have you not reading this and doing something more productive.

That being said, since you already are here, why not read some more.

The Mugging

Original story written in 2/05
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So I'm sitting in my room painting. Things are going well, although I'm a little hungry. After a few hours I need a stretch so I stand up to get a drink and to look outside my window.

That act in itself is unusual because of two reasons. One, I don't really drink much during the day and secondly, I normally have my curtains drawn in the evening. Let me rephrase that, I ALWAYS have my curtains drawn in the evening. The only reason tonight was any different was because I'm working on a painting of the room itself and the painting looked nicer if the curtains were open. That's sort of a crazy coincidence that might have saved someone from some serious harm.

So I look outside and see that some people are in my driveway. At first I didn't understand what was going on, but then I realized some people were fighting. Initially I thought it was just some punks messing with each other, but one of these kids hit the other one in such a vicious manner that I knew something was up.

I head downstairs and turn the lights in the kitchen on and try to open the backdoor. I don't have a key and this is one of those old school houses that needs a key to go in or out. I look out the window again, and I see that no one is there anymore, but there was a bag and a big pile of some stuff laying on the ground.

I was pretty sure that it wasn't a person laying on the ground, but it was still like deja vu. You see, A few years back I was hiking and I saw a what looked to be just a pile of stuff and it turned out to be a person who had fallen off a cliff. Needless to say, whenever I see a pile of stuff that looks like it might be a person, I usually check.

That was the initial motivation to make me go outside, but there was also an alterior motive. As I looked at that pile of stuff I realized that I was actually nervous to go outside of my house. Instantly that pissed me off. I said 'Screw that,' and immediately headed out the door. I never ever want to be afraid to leave my house.

As I head out into the night, everything is silent. There seems to be no one around, but you can never be too sure. Especially after witnessing someone getting jumped. The lights being turned on probably scared the punks away. I arrive at the pile and was very relieved to see that it's just a jacket and a bag and some chinese food, not a collasped person like I might have imagined.

After bringing the stuff inside I start to root through the bag looking for some clues as to who the owner is. I was hoping for a phone number to try to get in touch with the guy. Half way through I realize that the odds of someone having their own phone number in their own bag were pretty slim. Fortunately I did find some mail, so I knew I could return his stuff eventually. In his wallet, which was devoid of money I find a credit card with the guys name on it, James Burch.

Eventually I head back to my studio and get back into my painting when the hunger pangs start again. There's only one thought in my head. Obviously the chinese food was a gift from the heavens. It was even warm. So as I'm getting ready to eat the food, I realize that I can't eat this. This guy could be sitting at home right now all pissed off, the least I could do is bring him back his food. So I pack up his belongings and head out the door to his house which is right down the street. I get to the house and of course he doesn't live there anymore. He apparently moved into another house down the block.

While I'm over at James Burchs' old house, my current landlord calls, who also happens to be Jim's landlord too, he tells me that Jim is in the hospital and that I should just leave his stuff in my house and he'll come pick it up. This was good news and bad news. It was bad because I was worried about this Jim character. He must have gotten a wallup. I did see him get kicked in the face and that really bothered me, because the other guys doing the hitting looked like they were having fun. I hate seeing violence portrayed as a fun activity.

But on the other hand it was good news because it meant that I could eat the chinese food. Which I did and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was expecting chicken, but it was this weird rubbery meat. I'm assuming it was pork. It tasted fine, but when I bit into it and expected a certain feel, this rubbery texture caught me by suprise.

It's not too long before the cops show up. They're walking around the neighborhood flashing lights everywhere. I wander outside since I assumed they wanted to talk to me and see what went down. It's around midnight and I'm wandering around outside talking on my cellphone. A cop sees me and I say, 'Hey, you all here for the incident?' He is immediately suspicious and I tell him if he wants to ask me something I'll be inside.